Greetings from Wheaton

We got up on Sunday just before the hotel breakfast ended. Adam came down to meet us, then he and Haley packed up Pepper and their things to drive to New England. So we said goodbye to them, then headed out to Brookside Gardens. The park is set up for the annual winter lights show and the train display in the conservatory, so although the lights weren't turned on while we were there, we got to see the trains and Glen Echo Park recreation as well as the remaining chrysanthemums and fall flowers. 

The weather was chilly but the rain had stopped, so we had an uncrowded afternoon. It was Pokemon Community Day, so I also caught many Pikipeks and evolved some shiny jewel-tone Toucannons before we headed to my parents' house, from which we all went to Gregorio's and met my friend Linda and her husband (who's my father's doctor too). My parents treated us all to dinner, after which we went back to their house for leftover Thanksgiving desserts (I was too full for more than a piece of mini pecan pie). 

Greetings from Locust Grove

Adam and Haley spent most of the day with his high school/college friends at Glenstone and then at lunch, so from breakfast to dinnertime, Paul and I watched Pepper, who was not very pleased to be left with us despite being bribed with cheese. We took her for a walk around Washingtonian Lake before lunch, where we got to hear a brass band playing holiday music and received Comcast swag, then we came back to eat leftovers and change Pepper from her heavy winter coat into the lighter one. 

In the afternoon we went to Locust Grove to walk in the woods and see the winter birds there. Then we headed to my parents' house (with a quick drive by our old house, which looks fine), where we watched some football and ate some hors d'oeuvres while waiting for Adam and Haley to arrive. When they did, we ate an assortment of Thanksgiving leftovers and many desserts, plus we saw some of the not-good Maryland game. These are all family photos, but Pepper is in all of them like the supermodel she is:

Greetings from Hanover

Quickie, got back late after a busy day with more friends and family that started with a drive to Pennsylvania after hotel breakfast with Adam, Haley, and Pepper. We stopped to pick up Blue Koi Asian fusion (went to Red Barn Boutique while waiting for it), then went to visit Paul's father in Hanover for lunch and video calls with Daniel and both of Paul's brothers. 

We drove back into Maryland through Frederick so we could see Sailing Through the Winter Solstice -- the parade of lighted mini boats in Carroll Creek Park -- on the way to Kay and Chris's house. We brought in dinner there from Sasuns and had a lovely evening hanging out with them while Pepper tried to persuade each of us in turn to give her food. A few photos:

Greetings for Thanksgiving

Quick post-Thanksgiving post after a long day that started with me waking my husband because I was yelling in my nightmare and apparently in my sleep! We got up early to grab breakfast from the hotel buffet and brought it back upstairs so we could watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with younger son (who had run 10 miles that morning) and his wife. I was happy to see the Broadway numbers, Loki on the Disney villains float, and Pikachu on some kind of Pokesled. Afterward, we went to Seneca Creek State Park to take a walk (and get Pepper a walk) in the woods and among the winter light displays, though they weren't turned on in the afternoon. 

Then we came back to the hotel to change for dinner and went to my parents' where my sister's family had already arrived. I ate lots of food (butternut squash soup, cranberry phyllo appetizers, fruit and cheese shared with a demanding Pepper, t(of)urkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, carrot souffle, cranberry sauce, salad, stuffing, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie, chocolate roll, chocolate chip cookie cake, cake pops, turkey-shaped cupcakes and I'm forgetting some I'm sure) and we took our annual photos and had lots of conversation. Now I am stuffed! Hope everyone else had a very happy holiday and many things to be thankful for.

Greetings from Gaithersburg

I got to see lots of people on Wednesday! Paul went to work in the morning (and apparently had the whole floor of the office pretty much to himself) while I met my childhood friend and neighbor Noelle. We walked around the lake twice and got fancy drinks at the French-Korean bakery Tous les Jours. I only get to see her once a year when we're both back in the area for Thanksgiving, so that was awesome. Afterward, Paul met me back at our hotel and we went to La Madeleine for lunch (my favorite tomato soup in the world with five-cheese grilled cheese, which I have missed). 

By then my sister and some of her family had arrived at my parents' so we went to their house, took a walk around the neighborhood, and hung out for a little while. Nicole went to retrieve her other daughters downtown (thankfully not as chaotic as we feared after we heard about the DC shooting, which is obviously awful) and my parents took us to a new local restaurant, Pama Thai, which has excellent mango curry and pad see ew. Then we came back to the hotel to wait for Adam and Haley, who were driving from Boston in miserable traffic with Pepper -- and they finally arrived!

 

Greetings from Washingtonian Lake

Paul had to go in to work on Tuesday -- he has to be in the office four times a year -- so Cheryl braved traffic to come spend the day with me! I walked around the lake before she got here and stopped in a couple of stores, plus I talked to geese. Unfortunately we had rain on and off, so after lunch at Guapo's, we went to see Wicked: For Good in 3D (really stunning in that format, the new musical numbers are still excellent, it still may be the gayest movie I've ever seen and I'm counting Brokeback Mountain and Carol as well as The Wizard of Oz, which is in Wicked exactly the right amount). 

It was raining again when the movie let out, so we waited for Paul to pick us up and went to Asia Nine for dinner, sharing a bunch of vegetarian Thai dishes. There wasn't much on TV besides DWTS and basketball, so we wound up catching the very end of Beauty and the Beast on Freeform and now we're watching The Lion King, which I haven't seen since my kids were an appropriate age for it. During a discussion of how Nala really must be either Mufasa or Scar's kid, I found a hilarious thread about how this must be why the Lannister sigil is a lion. Here's my day in pics, minus geese who will come later:

Greetings from Maryland

Hello from Washingtonian Lake, where we're staying for the next week while visiting family and friends for Thanksgiving. Our flight took off late, but it was an easy trip once we got off the ground; we ate cashew butter and jam sandwiches with cheese and I read a third of Alix Harrow's The Everlasting, which I've had on hold in the King County Library system since it came out but finally broke down and bought so I could start it on this flight. In some ways it's a riff and an expansion of her "The Six Deaths of the Saint" -- they're both about how national mythology and imperial power are created regardless of the costs -- but the new book is also a meditation on how literature itself manufactures heroes, warps history, and builds worlds as propaganda, particularly English literature from Malory to Spenser to Tolkien, so it both refers to and pokes at disturbing aspects of books I love.

By the time we got our luggage, picked up our rental car, and went from Virginia to Maryland, it was after 8 pm, so we stopped at the Target near our hotel and grabbed some food for dinner, which we ate while watching Monday Night Football. Now we're watching the new episode of Watson and my next door neighbors, who are in our apartment taking care of our cats, just sent photos of kitties wrassling. A few photos from airport to airport: